Inaugural Black Business Expo draws packed house

Sabrina "Heymiss Progress" Madison, organizer of the expo, holds a portrait painted by Melana Bass, a vendor at the event.

It was not an easy trip from Durham, N.C., to Madison for LaToya Adkins. First, her flight on Southwest Airlines was canceled because of the company’s nationwide computer failure. She switched gears, driving seven hours to catch another flight in Atlanta. After four flight delays, her plane finally took off and landed in Milwaukee at 2 a.m. Saturday. From there she drove to Madison for the Black Business Expo, which began at noon.

“It was meant to be,” says Adkins, a native of Milwaukee and graduate of UW-Madison who left Madison in October for a social work job in Durham. “This event is important to me,” adds Adkins, who recently started making candles under the name Solitude Scents and was one of some 40 vendors at the inaugural Black Business Expo, organized by Sabrina “Heymiss Progress” Madison and held at the Urban League of Greater Madison on Park Street. “I was part of the Madison community for a long time.”

Especially given recent events, says Adkins, “it’s important for the black community to stick together and support each other and circulate our money within the black community.”

Adkins gives props to Madison, who, in the weeks leading up to the expo, urged attendees to save $10 a week for four weeks so they could spend at least $40 at the expo.

That was “genius,” she says, sending a “powerful” message about how people can start small.

Despite the stormy weather Saturday, the expo was so crowded at times it was sometimes hard to move down the aisles. Madison, a motivational speaker and “socialpreneur,” estimates about 350 people attended the expo, which she decided to organize on the heels of her successful Black Women’s Leadership Conference in May.

Madison says there were about 15 vendors at the leadership council, and a great energy between the business owners and shoppers. “I kept getting questions on how people could contact them later on,” says Madison, who wanted to “provide these folks with another opportunity to meet each other and network with each other.”

In all, there were 43 vendors at Saturday’s expo. Madison says she knows so many people herself, she is sometimes “shocked by who doesn’t know each other.”

“It makes sense to know each other so we can do business with each other.”

Connections as well as sales were made at the expo. One mother, who is white, messaged Madison on Facebook before the event. “She was looking for her [black] daughter to have positive experiences with women who look like her,” says Madison. The daughter is hoping to one day own a childcare center, so Madison introduced her to Angela Ferguson, the director of Angel’s Joy Learning Center. The mother “also found someone who would do her daughter’s hair,” says Madison.

Madison, a native of Milwaukee who attended Madison College, notes the raw discussions that have been taking place in the city about racism and racial diversities. But she says she thinks the conversations are having a positive impact and was happy to see a mixed crowd at the expo.

“It was a very diverse turnout,” she says.

Madison is already planning the next expo for Black Friday in November, to kick off the holiday shopping season. There were 19 vendors she had to turn away this time, so she is going to look for a larger venue, maybe even space at Alliant Energy Center.

She says the expo surpassed her expectations, and she’s excited by the good feedback she got from vendors and attendees. “Black folks here often say they don’t feel supported within their own community and the larger community,” she says. “If you don’t feel supported, that kills your spirit. I’m always trying to find a place to bring us all together.”

Judy Cooper keeps the memory of her mother alive through her business.

Judy Cooper was at the expo selling her magnetic jewelry that doubles as a name badge holder. Cooper, who lives and works in Madison, says she cobbled together a magnetic ID holder for herself a few years ago and ended up getting so many inquiries it spawned the idea for her business, QBs Magnetic Creations.

“QB” is named after Cooper’s mother, Qubie, who passed away in 2003. Cooper says her business, most importantly, is a way to keep her mother’s memory alive. As she says on her LinkedIn page, “each creation represents love, care, charity and remembrance of a woman who was very special.”

It took Cooper a while to perfect her product, consulting with magnet experts, among others. “I can’t sell what I don’t love,” says Cooper, who hopes to someday sell her jewelry full-time.

Cooper shows her wares at other festivals and says Saturday’s sales were good. “I would do it again in a heartbeat,” she says. “It was a wonderful way to bring out so many people in the community.”

Rudy Bankston also had a booth. Featured in an Isthmus cover story about the struggles faced by former inmates once released into the community, Bankston now works with students at Memorial High School on restorative justice issues. He was at the expo selling copies of his novel, Shed So Many Tears.

Vannessa Rodello of adorable was also there. Her group partners with the YWCA on the YWeb Career Academy, creating the curriculum for a new web development career training program targeting women and people of color. The idea is to get more women of color into tech careers, where they are underrepresented. Says Rodello: “We want to push more women into the pipeline.”

[Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the spelling of Vannessa Rodello's name.]